Evaluating Situation Awareness: An Integrative Review.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Human Factors Engineering
• Patient Safety Research

Background:

• Situation awareness (SA) is critical for healthcare professionals, as deficits are linked to adverse patient events.
• Understanding nurses' SA is essential for optimizing decision-making in complex clinical environments.
• Existing literature lacks a comprehensive overview of SA measurement tools applicable to nursing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct an integrative review of instruments and techniques used to measure nurses' situation awareness.
• To analyze SA measurement methods across both academic and clinical nursing settings.
• To identify reliable and valid measures for assessing SA in nursing practice.

Main Methods:

• Systematic search of computerized databases and ancestry searches.
• Inclusion of 40 empirical research reports focusing on SA measurement in nursing.
• Categorization of measurement methods into direct (e.g., questionnaires) and indirect (e.g., performance outcomes) approaches.

Main Results:

• Twenty-four studies measured SA in nursing teams, while 16 focused solely on individual nurses.
• Diverse direct methods, including the Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT) and questionnaires, were identified.
• Indirect methods encompassed observer ratings and performance outcome measures.

Conclusions:

• Reliable and valid measurement of nurses' SA is crucial for understanding their decision-making processes.
• A variety of tools exist for assessing SA in nursing, catering to different research and practice needs.
• Further research is needed to validate and refine SA measurement tools specifically for the nursing profession.